Total paper volume is decreasing as offices “go green” and paperless, replacing traditional paper media with digital media. At the same time, use of cloud computing/services is on the rise. Powered by the computational power in the “cloud”, handheld devices which interact with clouds are penetrating into every corner of business and personal lives. There are a number of electronic E-paper devices from different manufacturers deployed in today's business offices. As a result, today's paper based workflow will be replaced by digital workflow involving multiple different E-paper devices.
When deploying a document into a workflow with multiple devices there are many variables. For example, centralized systems use information technology personnel to define forms and workflows. For traditional paper-based workflows, papers or forms were created with a word processor, handed to someone, and they are told who to deliver the paper back to when a workflow step has been completed (i.e., return the form to a manager after a document has been signed). No such simple system works with electronic documents.
A further complication that arises when deploying an electronic document workflow exists in the capabilities associated with various devices. Workflow documents may not display properly due to resolution constraints, color capabilities, multimedia content support, etc. with different electronic devices. Furthermore, even if a device is capable of displaying a document, the device may not support the format of a workflow document, such as a generic postscript document formatted document, AMAZON KINDLE™ formatted document, SONY E-READER™ formatted document, or MS WORD™ extensible markup language document. Even if a device is capable of displaying a workflow document, there is no guarantee that a user will be able to perform a required workflow action on the device, such as providing a signature, selecting check boxes, etc.